The present invention relates to a lavatory unit on board an aircraft (hereinafter called lavatory).
In a passenger aircraft where there is substantially no isolated space providing privacy to the passengers, the lavatory is utilized not only as a toilet or a powder room, but also as a space to change his/her clothes. The passenger wishes to change his/her clothes in order to relax during the long hours on board the aircraft or to correspond to the climate of the destination.
However, the size of a conventional lavatory is generally not sufficient for getting changed. On the other hand, there are desires among the passengers on board the upper classes where the seats are also used as beds to change into clothes that allow them to lie down and relax. Therefore, some airlines have equipped larger lavatories on board the aircraft, but since large sized lavatories take up the limited cabin space of the aircraft and reduce the revenue, such lavatories are not popular. Moreover, the lavatories are mainly positioned near the exit (door) of the aircraft together with facilities other than the passenger cabin, such as coat closets and other various storage units, but since the airlines do not wish to reduce the number of passenger seats on board so as to maintain profit, such facilities had to be diminished when mounting the large sized lavatory.
On the other hand, the area near the exit where the lavatories are often placed is of great importance when the plane is on the ground as the entrance and exit of the aircraft and when during departure and arrival as the emergency escape hatch or emergency passage, but the area is often not used during flight.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,589,463 (May 20, 1986,) and U.S. Pat. No. 6,079,669 (Sep. 30, 1998) disclose patents related to expandable (stowable) lavatory, but both patents lack to disclose the art of expanding the interior space of a general-sized lavatory and adding further value to the lavatory space.
The present invention relates to storing a closet or other storage facility inside a lavatory as a module, and when there is need for a larger lavatory space, moving/deploying such module to the exit space that is normally not used during flight so as to expand the interior space of the lavatory, providing sufficiently wide space for example to passengers wanting to get changed or for passengers on a wheelchair.
The present lavatory is mounted in front of the exit of an aircraft, the lavatory comprising a body and a pullout storage module being stowed within the body and positioned at one side of the body close to the exit of the aircraft.
The lavatory body has sufficient size for stowing the storage module, comprising a normal door and an opening portion formed to the exit side of the aircraft allowing the pullout storage module to be pulled out of and returned back to the lavatory body.
When there is need to provide a large interior space allowing the passenger to get changed etc., the storage module is fixed to the storage position and the lock is released, and then the module is pulled out using a pullout handle mounted to the front panel of the module. After pulling out the module completely, a fixing latch is operated to fix the storage module at the deployed position. The whole operation explained above can be performed from outside the lavatory.
When the storage module is pulled out, the interior space of the lavatory is expanded corresponding to where the storage module was stowed, thus enabling to provide a wide and pleasant private space for the passenger.
The storage module is pulled out to the exit space near the door of the aircraft that is not used during flight, so there is no wasted space, and the pulled out storage module will not block the necessary space on board such as the aisle of the passenger cabin.
Since the door of the pullout storage module is designed to match the opening portion of the lavatory, the storage module can be used anytime without having to move the module. Accordingly, even when there is a need to store coats and bags of the passengers in the storage module while on ground, the storage module can be used without blocking the entrance of the aircraft.
Moreover, the lavatory secures a normal-sized interior space even when the pullout storage module is stowed, and the door of the lavatory is formed to face the aisle of the cabin separately from the opening for storing the storage module, so the lavatory can always be used as ordinary lavatory.